How microtransactions conquered the video games industry

If you get offered something for nothing you’d be right in thinking there’s probably a catch somewhere along the line.

Like many smartphone and tablet games, Candy Crush Saga is free to download and play but it constantly encourages you to make ‘microtransactions’, also known as in-app purchases, that allow you to start playing again instantly if you lose or gain a power-up that makes the game easier. Despite the cash element the app has reached a worldwide audience in ways of which even traditional hits such as Grand Theft Auto could only dream.

‘Candy Crush is designed from a psychologist’s point-of-view and it’s designed to get people to spend money,’ said game-maker Ollie Clarke, who won a Bafta breakthrough award in 2013 and now works at British developer Modern Dream.

‘It’s not so worried about the experience people get from it, whether they feel rewarded or enlightened as result of playing it. That’s not it’s goal.’

Although Candy Crush is quite upfront about its in-app purchases the more general concept of microtransactions has been facing increasing criticism from both parents, who find their children have spent thousands on an allegedly free game, and from adult gamers upset to find microtransactions creeping into their paid-for home console games.

Indie developer Steve Stopps, the founder of British publisher Kumotion and maker of award-wining titles such as Kumo Lumo and Paper Titans, said: ‘I was at school recently talking to a group of girls at careers day and they said, ‘‘These games want you to spend money but we never do’’. They understood all the mechanics and economic structure of Candy Crush and they knew how to avoid it completely, so there is choice there.’

But not all games are careful to ensure microtransactions are just an optional extra, with the recent Angry Birds Go! being one of an increasingly large number of apps to charge heavily for in-game items.

The game was going to charge £69.99 to unlock its most powerful racing kart, before an angry backlash from fans saw publisher Rovio halve the price.

But even then, the game is filled with advertising (including sponsored power-ups) and buying in-game currency is used to gain new special powers and to stop you having to wait for a racer to rest between games.

Some of these practices have already attracted the attention of legal bodies, with the Office of Fair Trading having previously investigated games such as The Simpsons Tapped Out for targeting children.

More recently, German officials banned an advert for online game Runes Of Magic, which they also judged to be targeting microtransactions directly at children.

‘These things go in ebbs and flows but I think free-to-play has had its peak,’ said Mr Clarke.

‘It won’t go away entirely but I think over the course of this year, you’ll see developers, rather than accountants and psychologists, figure out ways to offer people a compelling experience that isn’t purely a money-making machine’.

The biggest concern from core gamers is that these practices have begun to appear on home consoles, with Christmas titles such as Gran Turismo 6 and many of Microsoft’s new Xbox One games featuring microtransactions.

Xbox One game Forza Motorsport 5 came in for particular criticism, because as well as being a £50 retail title it also allows you to buy in-game currency – just like a free smartphone game.

Indeed, Microsoft has been accused of making progress through the game purposefully slower and more repetitive if you do it without microtransactions, just to encourage their use.

The outrage was enough for the company to rebalance the in-game economy shortly after launch but the options still remain.

‘If you take a paid game and you in some way hobble that paid game to extract further revenue from a customer it’s not giving your customer respect,’ said Mr Stopps.

‘In the long term, I think that damages your game, it damages your reputation, and the whole business model of free-to-play games and microtransactions.’

The system does address two problems with modern video games, the first being that high-end home console titles are now so expensive to develop that even at £50 they struggle to make a profit if they’re anything less than a massive hit.

And so to avoid increasing the cover price even further publishers have tried to embrace microtransactions. Together with season passes and other more expansive downloadable content a major game such as Call Of Duty or Battlefield can now cost close to £100 when all the optional extras are factored in.

The other problem the industry faces is that, while the average age of gamers continues to increase, the older they get the less time they tend to have to play video games – despite what they might otherwise wish.

In that sense, microtransactions on a home console are a perfectly sensible answer to the problem, allowing people that don’t have the time or skill to advance through a game as quickly as possible.

‘Ultimately, the people who will decide what’s right and what’s wrong will be the audience because they’ll choose not to buy those games,’ said Mr Stopps.